“Sefe” remembered on anniversary

It may not be an official holiday but on Sunday, many Belizeans and music lovers all over the world, took time to celebrate the birthday of Reggae legend Bob Marley. Almost lost amid the music, however, was the realization that February sixth also marks another important date in Belize’s cultural history: It was six years ago that entertainer and broadcasting personality Edison Coleman passed away. Since “Sefe” worked mostly in radio and largely in the days before television came to Belize, video recordings of the artist are scarce but we managed to dig out the 1984 clip from our files. The show was entitled “This is Belize” and Eddie said it all.

Edison Coleman

“You know this Belize is something else. Every now and then I go out the United States of America, United Kingdom, some Caribbean countries, neighboring republics. And I’ve performed for people out there, I’ve done a little work, good pay, very attractive. And I have met beautiful, wonderful people, excellent, marvelous, and then all of a sudden I find myself right back here. I think there is something special, something special about Belize. Go around Belize and you’ll find love. There must be love, you have so many different ethnic groups, people of different races living together in harmony. Look around us, wars and what have you, we don’t have that here. We live so lovingly, everybody, to the extent that some people say that we’re lazy, we have no ambition. Okay, no big thing, that’s what they think. But we know what we are, we know where we are. This is our home, this is where our hearts are, Belize. We believe that there isn’t any other country as wonderful as Belize. We got our own little corner of the globe, this beautiful jewel of ours as we call it sometimes. For better or for worse, this is our home. This is Belize.”

Edison Coleman: Gone but not forgotten.